AMTRA presented at the Interzoo 2018 (article) its own fan for aquarium with moonlight named Borea 80 LED. We received it and we have used it, so today we’re going to talk about it.
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italiano
The problem of the temperature in aquarium is the main one that an aquarist has to face. Usually, at least is Italy, it shows up in summer, and in the southern regions also in some months before spring and fall. The biggest aquariums can hardly avoid to buy a chiller, but for the smallest ones a fan is usually enough.
The fan allows the decrease of the temperature increasing the evaporation of the aquarium. For this reason it should be better that the air steam to be directed obliquely to the surface of the water.
In order to resolve this problem AMTRA projected Borea 80 LED, a little orientable fan of 8 cm with a thermostat in which there are also blue led with moonlight function. As the latins said, “nomen omen“, that is: “the name presents what it represents“. And Borea is a character belonging to the greek mythology, the embidiment of the North Wind, son of the titan Astreo and Eos.
AMTRA Borea 80 LED
We’re technically speaking of an orientable fan of 80 mm, connected to the central body with a liquid crystals display and three buttons. There is also the temperature probe connected, too.
Under the fan there are the blue led that can be adjusted between 5 values of different intensity to meet the different needs of the aquarists.
The fan has to be fixed to the glass through an acrylic bracket connected to the central block by the holes that you can see in the following picture.
The bracket is locked to the glass by plexiglass screws and it can be inserted in glasses of a thickness until 12 mm.
Here above we can see the fan in aquarium, with the fan itself inclined in order to move the water surface of more or less 45°.
Here above we can see the central body with the display reporting the temperature in aquarium. We have inserted the fan in a minireef of 80 liters AGP Gold and it reported a temperature of 29 degrees. In a few hours the temperature has been brought to 27 degrees.
The rotation of the fan can be set on 5 different levels depending on the type of aquarium to be cooled. The noise of the fan is only the moved air, it is very silent! You begin to hear a metallic noise after more or a less a month of use, supposedly because we’re talking about fan of a very good overall quality.
The Led part
In the inferior part of the fan, in the favored place, there are the blue led. As you can see in the picture they have been put both in the central part and in the external ring. These led also can be set between 5 power levels.
According to me they’re too powerful, in fact even at the level 1 they illuminate the aquarium too much. At the 5th level they could almost work as a lamp for a small minireef.
But as addiction to an already present light I think they’re perfect.
How to set an AMTRA Borea 80
On the central body there are three buttons: minus, plus, LED.
If you press the minus button for three seconds you enter the configuration menu, and you can choose the level among the 5 availables.
If you press the plus button for three seconds you enter the temperature settings, where you can set the temperature the fan has to maintain. Once entered the menu you use the buttons plus or minus.
With the Led button you can set the LED power. You have 5 levels plus a level where the LED are turned off.
A good quality/price relationship
AMTRA Borea 80 is affordable between 39 and 44 euro vat included. A honest price for an adjustable fan with thermostat included. Amazon sells it at this link for 34 euro. Even creating your home made solution you won’t spend less than 10 euro for a 8 cm PC fan, and then you anyway should add an adjustable power supply and a thermostat. But eventually it won’t have the comfort of the AMTRA Borea 80, with its ease in use and setting. We liked the most the possibility to tilt it as we please.
The presentation and setting up video
Davide Robustelli of AMTRA shoot this, and it can be very useful to know better AMTRA Borea 80.
Conclusions
We noticed a little “stain” while we were testing the fan, and AMTRA said it’s in solution. In fact, the fan hasn’t a hysteresis break, so if you set 27 degrees, as we did, the fan will bring the aquarium to 27 degrees and then it will always turn up everytime the temperature increases, even if just a tenth of degree. This leads the fan to switching on and off very often. This is the only thing we have to report of a fan that we liked very much. Even considering the price, that we think it’s in line with the technical content and the purpose it reaches.
The construction is very good, the fan is pretty much silent, except for the moved air itself, obviously. The blue led could be too stronger in certain contexts.
We want you to remember that this type of chilling increase the evaporation, so we discourage this purchase if you don’t have a system of automatic fill up.
PROS
Extremely silent fan
Adjustable fan
Ease of regulation
5 levels of power
Very good construction
Powerful LED that could also be a proper lighting for a small nanoreef
CONS
Absence of a hysteresis cycle
LED too much powerful to work as moonlight, even at the level 1
| Quality of the construction |  |
| Quality |  |
| Quality/Price relationship | |
